Umm Mariam asks:
I read the MakeUseOf article about building a LAN without a router. (http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/build-local-area-network-router/)
However, while the other PCs show up on the network I can’t open any resources on them. It asks for a network password even though those PCs don’t have one. What can I do to fix this? I’m using Windows 7.
10 Answers - Write an Answer
Jan Fritsch
December 29, 2012You will have to change the security options to allow file sharing without authentication.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itpronetworking/thread/16e3c166-0dda-4015-a8a0-8aaf8697c60a
http://blog.qdigi.com/2012/02/windows-7-folder-sharing-with-no.html
Or you simply input the account name and passwords of one of the users on the remote computer you are trying to access.
ha14
December 29, 2012Control Panel – Network and Sharing Center – Change Advanced Sharing Settings
Expand Home or Work
Network Discovery ON
File and printer sharing ON
Public Folder Sharing ON
Media Streaming Off
Enable file sharing 40-56 encryption machines (if XP/2000 etc PCs in workgroup)
Password Protected Sharing OFF
Ijtaba Alavi
December 29, 2012Having password is not only the way of protecting data over the network
check if those computers have turned on file sharing on home group and turn on all media sharing too and do the same settigns for home and puclic networks
then see.
And if it still asks for the password than just put the username (name of that pc) in the username place and leave the password blank and press enter, you should get the access
Benoit Bourgeault
December 29, 2012You can use a “Homegroup”, see the following:
-http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Create-a-homegroup
-http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/homegroup-help#homegroup-start-to-finish=windows-7&v1h=win8tab1&v2h=win7tab1
This one is more detailed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVG7cM9QChk
December 29, 2012Ijtaba Alavi
December 29, 2012Or just goto network and sharing center and then click on Change Advanced Sharing Settings from the left pane
then, explore all available options under:
Private (Current profile), Guest or Public, All Networks,
choose what to keep turn on and what to turn off
and read the description of everything there
you will not get any problem of this type in future
else the simple answer is turn off Password Protected Sharing under “All Network” Section !
Christopher Clark
December 29, 2012Both are great but the option that i do is just type in the computername\username and then the password. this is expanding on Jan’s second idea also. so if you are trying to access computerA while at computerB you would type computerA\user1 and then the pass. this is assuming you are sharing a folder with everyone on computer A.
Maybe you want to have a look into Connectify.me.
Connect your computer to your modem via a LAN cable, set Connectify to share over WiFi, then connect to the new WiFi network you created to share the internet and files between computers.
At the moment, I am using Connectify to connect my desktop computer to the internet via my laptop’s WiFi connection because my desktop PC doesn’t have WiFi, nor do I have a LAN cable. This is only a temporary option for me thought.
December 29, 2012Zaid Zidan
December 29, 2012I went through this too and I tried everything just as others have wrote, but for some reason nothing helped … I found that the easiest way to get access is to put a password on every computer (it wants a password even though there’s none, give it a password)
Matt Charman
December 29, 2012I’m assuming you actually mean “without a file server”, since you must have a router or to be assigning IP addresses to the computers… if you had a smart switch with DCHP, I doubt you’d be asking this question at all.
ha14 has the simplest solution to your problem.
Nikhil Chandak
December 30, 2012check these – http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/build-local-area-network-router/ – by MUO
http://www.labnol.org/software/wireless-network-without-router/11494/
or I think u can also get a video for this on youtube or on daily-motion
Flavius Graur
January 22, 2013Windows XP and later have a policy active by default that prevents anyone outside from connecting if there is no password set. One thing you can try (which always worked for me) is to disable that policy.
To do this(in Win 7) you need to open “Local Security Policy” (found in Control Panel>Administrative Tools) and inside, in Local Policies select Security Options.
On the list on the righthand side you need to disable
“Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords to console logon only”.
If problems still occur, you could try also disabling “Network Access: Restrict anonymous access to named pipes and shares” and enabling “Network Access: Let Everyone permissions apply to anonymous users”